Jump Improvements?

That opinion was still going by the old 11.1 version -- I should have clarified. I've downloaded but haven't tried the newer 11.3 yet... lots of stuff going on for me right now.

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Surgeon-General's Warning: Early test cases of Torn Stars have resulted in fatalities. The errors in the software should be gone by now. Hopefully.

A winter storm has grounded my vacation, so I am working on the jump sim instead for the next few days.

I have been reading up on the Pod Racing Sim. Game Spot has a good help guide that explains how the game works.

The basic pod racing strategy is to know the courses, and then know when you can boost fast and when you must slow down to be able to make the turns. Harder courses require upgraded racers to be able to make the turns while still going fast enough to be competitive.


The pod racers have a bunch of variables, some we can use, some we cannot:

Top Speed - the racers have a max velocity. We don't have this limit.

Traction - how well the racers hang on the track. We have lateral thrust, which is not the same, but the closest thing.

Turning rate - we do have this. We don't really use it. The ships have turning rates of 30+ degrees per second, while the track turns at 1 or 2 degrees per second. So this is a possible place we could create some variation.

Acceleration - how fast the racer recovers velocity after breaking, or slowing to dodge. We do have this feature, and it could be made more important.

Boosting for extra speed in the straights - EoC ships can always boost. The racers have a limit to boosting, in that the engines overheat. It might be possible to add a similar feature, in that we could swap heat sinks on and off the player ship. If you boost above your drives max velocity too much, you take heat sink damage, and that lowers your max thrust.

We also have repair rates to both the capsule bubble itself and to the drives. So we might have drive differences where more powerful drives pump more energy into the bubble, giving you more boost time, and faster repair of the bubble itself.

I did some POG work to test the idea of disruptor lights. The problem is that the simulation is running too fast for POG to be effective. At 6000m/s the player passes through a light so fast that POG misses the event totally. So POG effects are not going to work.

Instead, I converted some seeker mines into lights. Those mines work pretty well to damage a player. And they can apply a disruptor effect. So we have a method of doing different kinds of lights, with different effects. I don't care for the explosion, but the player is moving fast enough, you almost don't even see it.

In thinking more about the player learning the jump routes, I can see two possible solutions:

1. We randomize the segments that make up a track, but each lpoint route always has the same segments in the same order. The advantage of this design is that a player who takes the same routes can learn them, and eventually get quite good at them. The disadvantage, is that the same routes could get pretty boring.

2. We group segments into patterns a few segments long, like straight-hairpin-straight or curve-straight-curve. Then each time you take a route, a random set of patterns is chosen. The player will need to learn the patterns, because the routes themselves will change every jump. And harder routes will have harder patterns. Patterns will need to be distinctive, so you can learn them. I think the light placement could make them distinct.

The advantage to this design is that even if you take the same route 100 times, you still need to stay on your toes. The disadvantage, is that once you know all the patterns, you can basically do any jump in the game.

Are most people flying with a mouse or joystick? I have not tried the jump simulation with a mouse. That could be an issue.

Frankly, it should be done with a joystick. The original didn't support a mouse, and nor should we. Meaning we shouldn't limit features for those handicapped with a mouse.

A good question however...!

Unless there are very few joystick players. In which case, we are a mouse played game like it or not. Thus the question.

There is little point in spending weekends building this mod if no one can play it. I especially want to be careful to avoid features that demand a joystick, and make it impossible for people to play.

I am guessing Rotation of the ship is not easy without a joystick. The idea came up, because I was considering changing the jump sim to have strong lateral belly thrusters, but not side to side thrusters. So the player would need to twist the ship to make tight turns. It was a good idea until I thought of the mouse players. Then I wondered how many there are. I think I will start a new thread and ask.